We were spending so much time casting blogstones at our fellow Americans' ignorance we probably deserved the humiliation of admitting we weren't familiar with the woman the great authorities at Forbes consider the world's most powerful woman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has a PhD in physics and a picture of Catherine the Great in her office. WHY DO WE KNOW WHO ISABELLA BLOW IS AND NOT THIS LADY? Anyway, here's the embarrassing part: our brother is a press officer for the German Embassy. We consulted said brother, who just the other day introduced us to the ingenious German term "tussi," which indicates a young blond who manages to dress equal parts rich and slutty — the German equivalent of the JAP, basically (ahem) (Google image search result displayed at right) — as to whether Forbes' estimation of Angela's power was correct.

kind of. she should be, but she's sort of hamstrung by her coalition (imagine the republicans and democrats running a coalition government in a parliamentary system ... ok not quite that bad, but almost)..

but if things continue like they are in germany, and she can in the next elections get a coalition that does not include the socialist party (the other big party), then, yes. also, if she were less shy and more willing to come to the US often and crack heads and say crazy shit like sarkozy then she'd be a lot more powerful.

although, i dunno.. what woman would be more powerful? who is no. 2 on the list? oprah?